teacher's day, palace museum, and games

We haven't updated in two weeks, so here's another quick update on our lives.

Last weekend was a relaxing weekend, because we didn't go anywhere or do that much. On Saturday we just cleaned and rested, and on Sunday some of Aaron's relatives came by and dropped off a table, a fan, some pots, and lots of food, so it was very appreciated and pretty good, especially the table, because we had been eating off a tray off the floor. Also, we figured out the AC so we are ready for the humid hot summer!

This Friday was Teachers Day in Korea, so apparently the teachers get presents from students (and their parents) or the school. Aaron didn't really get much (except lunch out on Friday and got to go home early) but I got some flowers, perfume, little bunny decoration thing, and some soap.



This weekend was pretty cold and rainy. On Saturday it rained ALL day and was pretty chilly, but we headed to Seoul, where first we went to the National Palace Museum, which was better than the Ho Am, because it had some more interesting exhibits, such as instruments and clothes and such. We wanted to do the palace but it was so rainy that we didn't really want to stay outside too long.










After that, we headed to Yongsan, where we helped two friends get cell phones. The first one was good because we headed to the second stall and he got a good deal, but the other friend had a lot of trouble trying to get a phone that works as a prepaid phone, and he had to go to many stalls, and ended up with not as a good deal.




It was Costco after that, and we bought some food, such as oatmeal, mashed poatoes, canned meat, etc. We almost got lost but eventually found out way. We managed to pack most things into our bag so it was good, because it was raining pretty hard when we got back.

Today (Sunday), we invited one of our friends over to play some games. It was a pretty fun day, although he did get lost to our boonies, since it was pretty hard to get to. First he took the bus the wrong direction, then got off one stop after us, etc. But eventually he got here and we played some our games, such as Guillotine, Flux, and Gloom. We also had chocolate cake and I made curry. Then he also taught us how to play Magic Cards. A pretty enjoyable day.





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Mask Making

Today we headed to Seoul. It was supposedly this HiSeoul festival at the palaces, but we headed to one that was supposed to be about foods but it was really dinky. So we headed to Seoul Plaza, which was this huge lawn near the city hall.

It wasn't too amazing, but the good thing about it was they were giving out free mask making supplies - a clean white mask and this weird clay thing that was very dotty.

Ah well, mask making fun!

The finished product

I made a ball with the leftover clay!

Oh yeah, look, we found Texas in Korea!

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Ho Am Museum and Gardens

Yesterday we went to the Ho Am Museum and Gardens, and wow, what an adventure that was.

To get there, we had to take FOUR buses! First a bus from our boony town to the Anseong main bus terminal, then a bus from Anseong to Yongin. Then we had to catch another bus that went from the Yongin bus terminal to Everland. And THEN we caught another bus from the Everland gates that went to Ho Am. All in all, it was a pretty long and exhausting trip.

And unfortunately the museum and gardens wasn't super great. The gardens were pretty nice, but we've seen a lot of nicer gardens out there. The museum itself was pretty dinky, it only had lots of pottery, a few paintings, and some buddha statues, that's about it.

But at least, the weather was nice.












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Pay Deductions

This is for me (Jacki).

Just in case anyone is curious, here is the deductions taken from my total salary.

~4% goes to Pension
~2.5% goes to Medical Insurance
~2% goes to school lunches
~1% goes to teacher's social functions
~13.5% goes to the deposit (but only one more month of this, after that, this won't be deducted anymore)

so 77% is our take home pay.

Beat that, US deductions!



Oh, and we'll be getting back the pension and most of the deposit when we leave as well, so it's almost like only taking out the insurance, lunch, and social. Click here to read more

Play day

Yesterday, May 1, was Playday at my school.

It seemed to be a pretty big deal, it was like a big festival type thing almost, where all grades (and some teachers and parents too) compete in different events like tug of war, different types of racing (from relay racing to normal racing), games with balloons, giant balls, etc. It was a pretty interesting day.














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